Brandon Sanderson just released the third and final book of his Reckoners trilogy, and it was fantastic. Where are all the Sanderson fans in here? It was this board that told me to read his shit, and now that I do, nobody ever will talk about them with me lol

Now starting Altered Carbon. Netflix is making a show based on it, and I like reading books that have adaptions impending so I can compare them later.

About a quarter of the way through World War Z, almost upon the Great Panic for those familiar with it.

I was reluctant to give it a try because I'm kinda burnt out on zombies and the movie looked like fucking garbage. I learned that the two mediums share a name and contain zombies, and that's pretty much where their similarities end. Fair enough. So I gave it a shot and the format alone sold me.

It's basically a series of interviews of people who survived the events telling their part of the story. Government officials and operatives, refugees and human traffickers, there's a good deal of variety to help flesh out the world and story. Like most zombie media, it's about how individuals and societies react when our social systems and safety nets crumble, and I think an anthology of sorts does a great job demonstrating this

So I just got caught up on the Ender's Shadow series. They finished telling Bean's life story and now the series will be passed on to Bean's kids for the future sequels. Also, they are finally going to do another Ender direct sequel to the cliffhanger ending of the last Ender book over a decade ago, and the kids from the Shadow series will be finding Ender themselves and linking the two series back into one ongoing narrative instead of the two separate book series.

I also read 2010: The Second Odyssey. It was decent, but a lot of rehashing the first book/movie. Hopefully the final Odyssey books do something intense.

>>68231I finished the first book and loved it. I'll probably read the sequels soon.The coolest aspect of a TV show will be how the main character is going to be played by a different actor every handful of episodes whenever he changes sleeves. Kind of a reverse Orphan Black where they have one actress play every role, this will need multiple actors for one role.

I am almost finished with this book, it is fucking awesome. The writer is very in touch with modern slang for being a middle aged woman. The prose feels literary but the dialogue is liberally sprinkled with cusses and words like "hentai".>>68241Bradbury is the man. I like his short stories more than his novels, the dude's prose just sucks you in.

>>68269Speaker For The Dead is and always will be the best.The Shadow saga started weak with the first two, but by the two most recent Bean books, I was bawling like a baby from how real shit got. Now that I'm out of Bean books, I'm reading the prequel trilogy that takes place during the very first Fornic Wars, when mankind first learned they weren't alone in the universe and got invaded my buggers.

I read the first two in this series- The Warded Man and The Desert Spear- years ago, then picked up the Demon Cycle after the third book(The Daylight War) and pic related came out.

They're not objectively GOOD, but damn they keep my interest. I like the blend of fantasy and survival horror. I also think it's admirable how Brett has a lot of viewpoint characters in his book, but spreads them over 3-4 storylines instead of giving each one a separate story. The best parts in the series are when the Mind Demons are viewpoint characters, I wish he'd just do that more often. Too bad, it's when the books are at their most interesting.

Smoking tons of weed and enjoying the hell out of this book.You guys gave me shit for being too critical of the first book in the series, so for this one I have been getting high as fuck for full immersion into the adventure. Nynaeve is my favorite character so far. She's pretty minor it seems, but the main characters are largely uninteresting and Nynaeve has the closest thing to a personality so far compared to bland losers like Rand and Egwayne and Hurin and Loial.

>>68283Fuck yes. I read the entire series high as shit as well, great stuff.

Nynaeve is pretty entertaining cause she's so fucking mad all the time and, like a lot of the characters, is a hypocrite. Most people start to develop better in or after book three, when shit starts to get real.

>Nynaeve is pretty entertaining cause she's so fucking mad all the time

That's what makes her one of the few characters who doesn't feel one-dimensional. If you ask me, the rest of the characters are too fucking calm for the level of shit they are dealing with. Anyways, Nynaeve is my Wheel Of Time waifu and she better not get killed by that cunt Brandon Sanderson (jk ilu Brand Sand)

>>68305Just wait till you get too Mat's chapters, he's great. But yeah, I know what you mean. There's a few people like that, some major shit happens and they're just like "Okay, guess I have to do this now" but like I said, everyone gets much more developed as it goes on. Also, be prepared to dislike some of the POV characters intensely and having to slog through their chapters. I've seen a lot of people quit reading cause they just fucking sick of Egwene or Perrin, for example, or the characters they liked best just don't appear for a couple of books. It's not necessarily the characters themselves they don't like either, just the situations they're in, sitting around, picking their holes for 2 or 3 books.

But keep at it man, even if you have to take a break for a while between books. It's well worth it.

Currently reading "We." It influenced Orwell in his writing of 1984. It's a dystopian fiction. Personally, it's not as great as 1984 but still an enticing read. Characters have codes for names, are bald, walls are see-thru and sex is state-regulated. In other words

>>68382That was our Book Club book back when we tried having a book club, I was similarly mindfucked reading it, and greatly prefer it to Clarke's Space Odyssey Quadrilogy, which really never goes anywhere or makes as definitive a statement as Childhood's End. Does the mini-series actually do justice to the novel?

>>68385My friend who just recently read the book and watched the show with me said it was a great companion to it. Of course when doing a mini series on American TV they change up a few things but overall he said it was accurate. I haven't read it but I thought the show was excellent.

I just finished Siddartha by Herman Hesse. Superb book, though it felt like it was building and building and then everything was rushed and wham it ended. It got everything across beautifully but I wish the last quarter had been expanded by twenty or so pages for smoothness.

Working on The Essential Steiner by Robert McDermott, Phd. Superb introductory collection so far on one of the least appreciated and known modern thinkers. It's a tough read at times even for me and I've read several books by Steiner. The chunks he presents are dense and you have to really read carefully to absorb the totality of what he's getting across, which is heavy shit about consciousness, spirituality, reality, other esoteric areas.

Also reading Ginseng: A User's Guide by {author}. I can't remember his name and it is in my car but it's really good if you're into using ginseng or TCM at all.

Also reading An Outline of History Part I by H. G. Wells. Best written history I've ever read but I'm not a history buff, which is why I'm reading it.

Recently reread Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams and remembered why he is one of my favorite authors, his Dirk Gently novels some of my favorites.

Also recently finished the Tao Te Ching. One of the most profound and simple texts ever accomplished.

Holy fuck, I finally finished Gravity's Rainbow. It was an interesting read, watching the writer play with the English language and tantalize my stoned mind with hints of trippy elements being at play, but ultimately, the book seemed to be promising some epic explanation that Pynchon seemed unable to actually deliver when the time finally came.

with all the praise he gets, i'll say he has the ability to deliver some epic explanation (although i have nothing to back that up), but chooses not to deliver to fuel that sense of paranoia theme in his novels. Anywho, crying of lot 49 was somewhat interesting? As someone born in the 80s, I wasn't a fan of all the dated references.

>>68422Yeah, I was thinking that maybe the point was to give us a bunch of dots with no real connections, and make the readers go as crazy as he is by trying to tie them all together, like a paranoid with a wall full of pictures and names with lines of string trying to connect them all.

Started the Mercy Thompson series. My old boss had these as her favorites, and she kept bugging me to try them before she left the job about two months ago. I'm on pic related, the third one.

They're pretty good, if not very deep. The first one was a massive character dump, but the second one got much better. The series features werewolves, vampires, and the fae in a non-retarded way, which is great since I've been a bit leery of supernatural fiction for a while now.

Just finished reading Piano Player. It was a pretty good dystopian novel, but I can see why it wasn't as well remembered as 1984 or BNW. The book also had the typical lackluster ending all dystopian novels seem to have

>>68507Laird Barron's The Chroning is the closest a modern horror novel has come to feeling like it was written by an Austen or Dostojevsky. The guy brings the prose and styles of classic literature and crafted an amazing modern tale, like if Hawthorne was alive today and wrote a Lovecraftian yarn.

>>68506Would this happen to be your first Heinlein novel? He has a sort of dull writing that grows on you. The ending third is really the best part, and his books tend to be more about preaching some ideal then being actual SciFi.

>>68513yep. starship troopers seems like some badass sci fi war thing when you hear about it but the actual book is just hundreds of pages of heinlein bitching about how much he hates the chinese. it's really painful how obvious the mouthpieces are, especially the classroom parts. it's almost ayn rand tier bad. the movie was good though, it focuses on action and is more or less a satire of the book ideologically. Strange Land has a lot of preaching too but a lot of it was just Heinlein trying to live out his sexual fantasies through writing.

>>68515You're right on point. I think it's what actually makes him unique, though irritating at times. You just need to set yourself to the right expectations and you'll find the books are fun reads that allow you to learn more about Heinlein and his ideals. The SciFi part is just there to set up a world for his opinions.

>>68517it alternates between wacky american near-future with comedic political intrigue, annoying precocious kids, and meditations on tennis and addiction---seriously if you're not enjoying it don't continue, but there seems to be some cred gained with finishing it though. Also, there are a lot of digressions in the book, so you're likely to find some interesting parts.it's also pretty popular, and there are a lot of online resources if you don't understand parts and want to find interepretations/visualizations, etc. http://infinitejest.wallacewiki.com/david-foster-wallace/index.php?title=Main_PageIf anything, it's part of the current cultural trend.

>>68518I'm enjoying it when it isn't going on about how weed turns you into Boo Radley.

>there seems to be some cred gained with finishing it though

I finished Gravity's Rainbow so I have my bragging rights secured to upstage anyone who tries to pull the Infinite Jest card at parties. At the last party I attended, some dude was bragging about how he was reading Infinite Jest and everyone thought he was some genius. When I announced that I had just finished Gravity's Rainbow, I was like Superman, I could tell almost everyone there had tried reading it at some point and had given up in humiliation. Pynchon never felt like he was judging the druggie characters, instead he reveled in getting down and dirty with them. Wallace makes it out like weed gives you autism. I smoke weed 24/7 and have a perfectly healthy work and social life, Wallace is just a pussy who can;t handle his shit and doesn;t know how to find the right strain for your personality.

Reading The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich by Philip K Dick.This is my fourth PKD novel im reading and its so nice to just jump back into his style, its like "yeah, this is how stories are supposed to be written".

Like a character mentions a plot device, and the other character seems worried about it and feeds you tiny little bits about what it is, its so much better than having some rando coming in and being all "oh plot device? hahaha that thing that does x y z and a b c e f g y m n l o p? hahahaha oh yeah i guess i forgot what that was" which ive gotten from some of the other novels ive been reading recently.

Currently reading this book by Levi-Strauss. Kind of expected structuralist philosophy, but, instead, I got anthropology. Not a problem since this guy is boss, and he talks about the brilliance of 'indigenous' peoples. Gets a bit complicated at times, but it is comparable in difficulty to contemporary French philosophers.

>>68341I'm going to check this out now that I finished all the main dystopian novels. Have you heard of Player Piano? It takes place after machines have taken control of the means of production, and a small elite run these machines.

I am a huge King fanboy, but never read this because the description sounded horrible. A roughly 6 hour read all about a woman handcuffed to a bed? Sounds miserable. And it is, but in only good ways. This combines the tension of Pit and the Pendulum with the storytelling style that the James Franco film 127 Hours heavily lifted. I was worried that King would leave it open ended, like did all the things happen that she experiences in the room, and I am glad the ending gives a clear cut answer on what was going on. This book was much better than I expected. Maybe it is one of King's worst, but it is best than most horror writers best books.

Picked this up after devouring the King Killer Chronicles a couple months ago. It's different from the main series, but the insight into Auri and naming is fascinating. Rothfuss is just a great storyteller tho. I've noticed in this novella especially, he uses a lot of poetic techniques, like alliterations, meter, rhyme etc. Given the context of the book, it makes for a very fun and interesting read.

A quick note in response to your letter of the 7th [in which Mlle de Rousset recounted two humorous stories about how her acquaintances are afraid of her because of her intelligence]:

The 9th, at night.

Your two little stories are comical and have amused me. Is it only now that you discover that people fear intelligence? Nothing can make you more enemies, and the reason is simple. With intelligence you more readily recognize the ridiculous, with intelligence you cannot stop yourself from laughing at it, and quite naturally the result is that those who are ridiculous and without intelligence enormously fear you and end by hating anyone who sees through them so well and can paint them in their true colors. The simplest thing, you know, my dear Saint, is to run with the pack, never to display superiority, and to try to use one's intelligence only to make others shine the brighter. In that way, one is perhaps less happy, because a wicked wit is a great pleasure, I grant you, but one is more tranquil and tranquility is worth more than pleasure. Ah! my little beast, here is someone to bring me my oats; I must leave you now to go eat. I will get back to you for my desert, I will have you for my little compote. Adieu.

As it seems to me that I have answered nearly all of the points of your letter, I am now going to make this statement by way of a small apology for my manner of writing and speaking Provencal. Please have the kindness to note and to put at the forefront of your mind - yes - it is your brain that I want to say (assuming that you have one, which is something not yet proven), that it is impossible, dear Saint, that I could speak Provencal either with the delicacy or with the style that you display. I have never spoken it in Provence except with the peasants. In the upper circles you know that one speaks only French, with the result that it is impossible, just as you have clearly seen, that my style and my language could be anything but low comedy; it could only make you laugh. If you are pleased with it, well and good! But if you laugh at me, I will stop it.

When I was in Germany, where I made six campaigns [in the cavalry], not being yet married, I was assured that in order to learn a language well, it was necessary to sleep regularly and continually with a woman of that country. Persuaded of the truth of this maxim, during one of my winter encampments at Cleves, I rigged myself out with a nice fat baroness who was three or four times my age, and who taught me rather pleasantly. At the end of six months, I spoke German like a Cicero!

If you think that it will be necessary to follow the same method with the Provencal, with the exception of the fat baroness, since, having become a bit more demanding, I desire a bit more equality, by means of which, I say, if you think this method will prove convenient, and if you wish to serve me as teacher on terms much sweeter than my fat baroness imposed on me, then I am yours with all my heart, my dear Saint! In return, I will teach you some pleasant things that I know: to play the hautboy, to dance on a rope, to sweep a chimney, to tell a good story, and other little social graces that I possess to the core and which it will be my distinction and deep satisfaction to teach you.

>>68424dunno what it is, but i always found the alpha and omega branch more entertaining from briggs, set at the same time with some of the characters crossing over, usually just sam, but hes minoir in the other arc.

brett weeks dark angel trilogy was damn good as a note related to the thread.

Just finished One hundred years of solitude. I loved it, and it's definitely up there with my favourites (I'm not very well read though). Was pretty good with the feels, but the ending really left me disturbed. It really felt epic without being boring. Can anybody recommend something similarly paced? In contrast, Don Quixote felt like it just kept dragging along at many parts.Probably going to read If on a winters night a traveller, or huckleberry finn next.

Been on a Stephen King kick recently. Ordered the Bachman Books collection and I am almost to the end of Rage. I've read Long Walk before, but I've been really enjoying this story as well. Since it's not a supernatural, or a straight up horror story like Kings other stories, it has been pretty awesome. Apparently Rage is out of individual print because a bunch of kids read it, and decided to do what the main character does (kills his teacher and holds his classroom hostage) . King too is apparently quite regretful about this story, but I've really liked, and I find the Bachman stories more entertaining, and just all around better written than King's other works.

actuality if you get past all the spooky stirner memes and the shitposting, its pretty quality philosophy. Makes a pretty timeless argument on the shifting of morals throughout history. I can see why Marx roasted him so hard lol

>>68641Rage was okay, but I get why King distances himself from it. It was his first novel and is poorly written and treats the murderer like a hero, and other whackos read it and took the theme to heart. The theme was basically "killing teachers will wake up the sheeple students and teach them that nothing matters so lets party and kill people." Good one, King.

>I loved it, and it's definitely up there with my favourites (I'm not very well read though).

No matter how many more books you read, that one will stay among your favorites. It's one of the best books of the previous century.

>Can anybody recommend something similarly paced?

Though nothing surpasses it, you can try picking up authors whom he directly influenced, like Salman Rushdie and Isabel Allende. Personally, though the most similar stylistically and story-wise, I didn't find them to be as interesting. I got more of a similar vibe from Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, and among the non-Latin American writers, Umberto Eco and Mikhail Bulgakov.

Now I'm back to Ulysses by James Joyce but it might be over my head. I could finish Gravity's Rainbow but this is a bit much.

>>68649Lawn care. I drive around fertilizing lawns all day by myself. I only wear one earbud so I can hear the 2-3 random people that try talking to me during my days. I've listened to 100 books this year, it's insane. I never want to work without headphones again.

>>68650So it's also socially and ecologically beneficial work. (In a bitter voice:) Nice.I'm going to fertilize this envy like a lawn, so it can drive me to change this, in all but financial ways, unfulfilling career I have.

As for Ulysses, it's not meant to be read in one take, nor to be anything you expect from a book, simply put it was meant as a deliberate break with, and comment on, the established literary tropes. Just like modernist paintings of the time.

>>68653autiobiography of comedian. he had an unconventional childhood and relationship with his parents, particularly his mother, which i guess warranted a book deal. lots of dark humour. e.g. he 'assisted' in his mother's suicide when she was terminally ill, getting drunk with her.

also an attempt into japanese literature even if it isn't that highly regarded in japan (from what i've heard, murakami is too western for them)

the stanhope autobiography is pretty good. The wording is a little clunky and feels forced at times. I know his motivation for a lot of his adventures is purely for story-value, and he's open about that, but that seems a little off-putting now, and by extension, so does his standup. Also, learning about the influence AA had on his childhood, has got me thinking of infinite jest again. From what i remember, DFW talked about how people used AA to heal and rehabilitate themselves from addiction through sharing stories during meetings. On the other hand, Stanhope talks about addicts getting thrills from the laughs of sharing their stories, which is very similar to the rush comedians get when performing on stage. They're not incompatible (although stanhope thinks AA is bullshit, which DFW also says in passing i think, but in that 'it could be bullshit but you've still got to try' sort of way) but stanhope's view makes AA seem more like somewhere you want to be and have fun.

What I adore:Like my absolute favorite, no competition, nothing even comes close, I cannot even begin to describe and you would not believe nor understand how special this is to me, book ever - 1001 Nights - it's a story in which someone tells stories in which someone tells stories... story babushka doll! Yes yes yes yes yes all of my love

What I think of all the others aspects: meh

Say hi to your roommate!

As for Thus spoke Zarathustra, here's my observation - second place book with most exclamation points. The only book with more exclamation points I ever encountered was Erin don Daniken' s ... some shit (I couldn't get through it because how stupid it was and how much he was yelling at me).

Neitzche wants to make good points. Neitezche thinks strong is good. Neitzche makes his arguments strong by force. Of punctuation.

>>68712Lol yeah, now that you mention it. There really are a lot of exclamation points in here. Usually when Zarathustra is finishing up a rant, or railing on one of his followers or adversaries, or basically anyone who listens to him.

I disagree with you though, Nietzsche doesn't necessarily think strong is good. He frequently makes allusion to what Nietzsche might construe as strong to wind passing through the masses. Simply passing through furious mob, merely ruffling their clothes as it whisks away. Nietzsche creates a metaphor of the masses attacking the strong and as they do so they merely 'spit into the wind.' Buy, hey, its fuckin' philosophy so who the hell knows, 'cept Nietzsche and he's dead as fuck. And probably didn't know either.

Tonight, bumping for DGR for a class I have thursday. I didn't realize I actually knew who one of the authors was from lightly skimming anarcho-primitivism YT videos in the past, so its pretty cool I get to familiarize myself with the literature.

So far, its alright. Sometimes I get the vibe that the authors are just boiling down complex historical events to create an example that can be poured into the shape of their own ideological beaker. Like equating the assassination of Trotsky to 'the destructive masculinity of the male ego.' Like never mind Trotsky's relationship to Lenin, Stalin, using him as a scapegoat and Permanent Revolution. Its just penises, according to the authors.

This book is fucking terrifying. It is a post-apocalypse tale where Earth has been taken over by some creatures. Anyone who sees the creatures goes crazy and kills others and then kill themselves. No survivors know what the creatures look like and spend their lives with their eyes closed. The creatures don't attack humans, all you have to do to survive is never see one. This book made me anxious as fuck.

I read some Ayn Rand this summer and I'm pretty familiar to right ideology just from being around my family alone so I'm trying to familiarize myself with more leftist works. I read some Trotsky in August, which was cool, but I feel like if I'm going to be checking out literature by Marxists, I should at least read some actual Marx. So, yeah, pretty cool stuff. Not exactly 'fun' reading, but I'm glad I'm doing it. Marx will be extremely tedious for several chapters at a time, dissecting and formulating endlessly until suddenly rising up into a furious tidal wave of political fury.

>>68755The weird thing about The Capital is just how much easier it was for me to read in English than in my native Serbian language. (I don't know German). Never had that occurred to such an extent in any other book I read.

All of the one-word economic terms in English are only properly translated by long, clunky multiple-word idioms in Serbian. It becomes terribly obvious just how much their culture is centered around and advanced in economics compared to mine.

>>68756Wow that is interesting. I wonder if thats due to Central Europe's insane economic history and its role in essentially kicking off the industrial revolution. Even stranger though how Marxian economics only really took shape in Eastern Europe despite its origin in Central Europe.

>>68411Siddhartha has amazing prose, but I see what you mean about the rushed feeling. It feels like it could at any point up to sixty pages from the ending, but I suppose that's in line with the "you're always learning" message of the book.

>>68776Yeah, it is absolutely a tedious and sometimes even straight up boring read, but well worth it in my opinion. So many people walking around today feeling and talking all political and that's cool and all, but if you don't have any foundation or theory then what do you have?Its annoying. Everyone just sharing these heartfelt, 3-minute Facebook videos and thinking they know shit. Everyone has an opinion on whats wrong with the world 'it's ________ and __________ fault!" and everyone has an opinion on what the world should look like, "we should have _______! we should abolish ________! etc. etc"But I mean, no one knows why things are the way they are and even less does anyone have any tangible ideas on how to change it. So yeah, I've decided to start familiarizing myself with more theory.

Anyway, finished Zarathustra last week, so I'm onto Twilight of the Idols and then after that the Anti-Christ.

>>68517>>68520I read Infinite Jest two years back and loved it. I ended up reading a ton of DFW's other work, fiction and non-fiction, and really enjoyed all of it. I had to take a break from him though, just needed a change, so I read an Asimov novel.Back on point - I really enjoyed DFW's writing and Gravity's Rainbow was recommended to me several times and I'm about 150 pages in now. Christ it's dense and I'm a bit worried it won't end up being all that I hoped it would, but I'm working my way through it steadily. Do people really read these books just to appear super smart? I don't think I pick up on every little thing, or even most of the allusions, but it really isn't that tough to read through some excellent (although so fucking dense) prose and get something out of it. It is a bit of a pain trying to go through something like that along with school though.

>>68520I think a lot of it was just that DFW was spergy and also smoked weed and it didn't help his sperg-related anxiety. I am pretty spergy and also have smoked weed and it's a bit scary how addictive it can be in some situations (although nothing like harder drugs of course). Although I read Infinite Jest before smoking weed with any regularity, it was really validating to me that he treated it like a real thing, and a real problem for some people.

>>68780Gravity's Rainbow's plot is in all the things that they DON"T show you. The surface of the book is scattered and rambling. Pynchon seems like he took a lot of acid while writing that book. Some crazy fucking shit is going on behind the scenes in that story, you need to watch for hints.

I started Brave New World this morning to "clean house" with more of the required high school lit I was never assigned. It's neat so far, though I believe I missed out on the unique experience of it due to cultural diffusion. It even comes across at times like cliché with the historical revisionism bits. Then I have to remind myself that it was the 1930s, and Huxley invented the clichés. So it's all good.

Also funny how "Trotsky", "Marx", and "Lenin" are all referenced before it even starts.

>>68777Some of the things published in his last ten years of mental illness a lot of his stuff was put together by his sister for more cash, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Some ideas could be random thoughts or perspectives scribbled down that never panned out but was edited for publication by her.

Cujo is a mother fucking boss. Every time he enters a scene, I get all excited. Dude has mad gravitas for a villain. The little kid in this was so fucking annoying, I was on Cujo's side in that fight. Some kids need to get eaten by rabiod dogs and stop all the whining.

>>68852Yeah some parts of Capital I thought were really engaging, fun and not incredibly difficult to get through, which was surprising since I'm a dumb asshole when it comes to this stuff; and then just when you start getting comfortable you hit fuckin' 50 pages of reproduction schema or ground rent calculations or an elaborate exegesis of 19th century finance. But yeah, just read it over the summer myself and definitely don't regret it

>>68853Yeah, that was my exact experience. The first 50 pages kinda rile you up and come off like an intense podium speech and then BAM hundreds of pages of theory, which doesn't let up until your 50 pages from the end.

Also, I bought this kind of on a whim. I've always been interested in the esoteric and occult and it was nearing Halloween when I bought it, so I was in a pretty spooky mood.

Finished The Martian Chronicles. Was going to pick up something new but found Naked Lunch with some of an old friends items so I'm giving that a read at the moment. The other book I found with their stuff was Memnoch the Devil.

>>68199The Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States was responsible for sweeping changes in attitudes toward the decorative arts, than considered the minor or household arts. Its focus on decorative arts helped to induce United Slates museums and private collectors to begin collecting furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, and textiles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fact that artisans, who were looked on as mechanics or skilled workers in the eighteenth century, are frequently considered artists today is directly attributable to the Arts and Crafts Movement of the nineteenth century. The importance now placed on attractive and harmonious home decoration can also be traced to this period, when Victorian interior arrangements were revised to admit greater light and more freely flowing spaces. The Arts and Crafts Movement reacted against mechanized processes that threatened handcrafts and resulted in cheapened, monotonous merchandise. Founded in the late nineteenth century by British social critics John Ruskin and William Morris, the movement revered craft as a form of art. In a rapidly industrializing society, most Victorians agreed that art was an essential moral ingredient in the home environment, and in many middle- and working-class home craft was the only form of art, Ruskin and his followers criticized not only the degradation of artisans reduced to machine operators, but also the impending loss of daily contact with handcrafted objects, fashioned with pride, integrity, and attention to beauty. In the United States as well as in Great Britain, reformers extolled the virtues of handcrafted objects: simple, straightforward design; solid materials of good quality; and sound, enduring construction techniques. These criteria were interpreted in a variety of styles, ranging from rational and geometric to romantic or naturalistic. Whether abstract, stylized, or realistically treated, the consistent theme in virtually all Arts and Crafts design is nature. The Arts and Crafts Movement was much more than a particular style; it was a philosophy of domestic life. Proponents believed that if simple design, high-quality materials, and honest construction were realized in the home and its appointments, then the occupants would enjoy moral and therapeutic effects. For both artisan and consumer, the Arts and Crafts doctrine was seen as a magical force against the undesirable effects of industrialization.

Now that I'm on winter break I can binge-read a book or two for something other than grad school.....

"Unspeakable: Father-Daughter Incest in American History". Absolutely horrific, you'll need mind-bleach after some sections, but god DAMN Dr. Lynn Sacco of the University of Tennessee is a fire historian and it deserved all the critical acclaim and the two awards it received.

Music is made by ALL people. Not just the nerds in their basement or the hot girls, ALL people. Everyone has their own artist name and you can hear each person's "sound". If your music sounds similar to another's, guess what? YOU TWO might be compatible. For those who choose to opt out of the Solyndra MySound augmentation, there are elderly dance clubs where people in their 70s and 80s put on live DJ shows, house music and it's fucking gross and they make out and there's a VICE doc about it and movies of course. Every country in the world has a welfare program for musicians due to widespread piracy.

Average breast size in Japan: 32F

By 2070, due to the low oxygen levels, the NEGGL will also impose an 'air tax' on its people. At birth, doctors place a chip inside your lungs that monitors the amount of air your body processes and you will be charged a certain amount of Astro-blics (the global currency, based on the ingenious yet fatally flawed bitcoin protocol) to your file on the Universal Data Base. If you are unable to pay the air tax, your Universal Data Base account will be terminated, profile pictures deleted, and you'll be sent to a subterranean labor camp.

Currently rereading The Book of the New Sun, just finished the third book. I consider it one of my favorite series, but there's so much I didn't quite understand the first time around. I think I'm absorbing a lot more this read through.

After that, I plan on checking out The Picture of Dorian Gray because I just finished watching Penny Dreadful and now I"m all hyped on that period.

Just finished Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk and I didn't really like it. Someone on this board recmmended and I don't understand why. Maybe because I liked Palahniuk when I was 16 but now I'm 30.

Currently reading Heir to the Empire. Really liking it so far. I don't read much sci fi anymore but I like the mythology of Star Wars in a Joseph Campbell sort of way.

>>68969I really want to get to a point where I understand the timeline/lore of the star wars universe but that just seems like a huge load of work to do. I'll get there someday. Maybe when I'm old and retired.

I had a bookmark exactly half way through a dance with dragons, got kind of bored with it so i put it back on the shelf and went and read other things, its been bugging me lately that i never did finish it so im beginning where i left off, Then i have Valis by PKD left in my pile but im considering buying Gravity's Rainbow or infinite jest next time im in the book store, to challenge myself.

Neil Strauss is one of my favourite authors, he is kind of a "hey i have this problem with my life, i wonder how i fix this? oh hey heres a group over here who says they can help me, ill go write about it" type author.

Just dont do what i did and tell your partner that you've read it, because they think they have been played. I told my girlfriend i was super happy to be getting a first edition of the truth, which led to us talking about neil strauss and once i mentioned i read the game she felt cheated even though there was no cheating? i was like "what are you talking about? whats wrong with learning to have confidence to talk to you? and talk to you like a person?" The book gets a really bad rap because people think its some kind of cheat code to get women to sleep with you rather than just a confidence builder.

Like the mystery part where he goes into the "peacocking" just said to me if you can go out looking like a fucking idiot, you can go up and talk to that girl looking down at her drink nursing it. know what i mean?

Anyways ill let you read it, its a great book. Emergency by Neil Strauss is probably my favourite of his books, because i enjoy conspiracy type stuff.

>>68199Not really "reading" but I just listened to the audiobook of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison. Definitely one of the most depressing things I've ever read/listened to. Truly surreal, horrifying stuff. Loved it.

And the audio book is cut with these weird, trippy, totally 80s synth tunes between each chapter or break or whatever, which surprisingly went a long way for setting the tone and the general mood of the whole story. And Harlan Ellison did a great job narrating.

I read books 8 and 9 of Wheel Of Time over the long weekend. Holy shit, these books have gotten boring as fuuuuuck. I can;t wait til Robert Jordan dies and I get to the Brandon Sanderson books, I hear those are better.

>>6898680s audiobooks are the best. The corny soundtrack somehow does the trick.

>>68967Finished Book of the New Sun and started Dorian Gray. I'm going to give myself time to digest the main series and read other books before I read Urth of the New Sun again. The series was even better the second time around, being 4 years older since the last time I read it and understanding more. Actually, as someone who was raised Catholic but haven't considered myself religious since teen years, and knowing Wolfe identifies as Catholic (and Catholic themes are pretty prevalent in his writing) Book of the New Sun has me reconnecting with religion, or at least more open to its themes and lessons.

>>68994It's extra hammy cuz that character is a black woman, and he - at the time - was a 65 year old white dude.

You should hear the A Boy and His Dog audiobook from the same collection, there's this bit in the beginning where he does this lame ass "tough guy" voice while delivering a line that went like "...and if my gear gets rusted I'm gonna break yer fuckin bones!" and it just does not work. He winds up sounding like a wimpier version of a low-level raider in Fallout, or like that guy from Back to the Future who wears the 3D glasses, one of Biff Tannen's dorky entourage.

>>68996Agree with you completely on that, which is a REAL shame since i just started getting into audiobooks read by the authors because they are able to convey the intonations they intended.

On that note, anybody have GREAT examples of audiobooks where the authors are reading their work? I've already started with David Foster Wallace which I highly recommend if you like his work. David Sedaris' short stories.Patton Oswalt with Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. Aziz Ansari with Modern Romance.

>>68997Mainly you get notable memoirs for writers reading their book. I like An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth by Chris Hardfield (astronaut memoir), you can hear the whole range of emotions in his voice from joy at seeing space for the first time to embarrassment when a mistake of his fucked up a flight.

I read about a dozen books a month but don't bump this thread unless I find something really worth hyping up. Well, this is that book. The greatest horror of the last few years, it's like 80s King where horror was not just disgusting but also fun.

I'm about 2/3 through this book and I'm really getting into it. I heard someone describe it as a more honest To Kill A Mockingbird which is pretty true. Definitely more complex and taboo with the added element of a gay character. It's in a southern slice of life style which can sometimes drag a little if you don't like the particular character it's following at that moment. It will feel like nothing is happening and then suddenly you hit a really cutting sentence and you start tearing up. A few really fantastic passages on dying and depression. Overall I recommend it, but not over her novellas which are both amazing.

I remember liking Vonnegut's writing style from reading Slaughterhouse-Five, but pic related is more personal to me so it blows Slaughterhouse out of the water. The combination of idealism and eccentricity of the main character is fantastic!

>>69023my favourite's Cat's Cradle. Has the pacing of a good thriller and definitely doesn't overstay any particular point for too long. I found Slaughterhouse Five to be too preachy yeah, the bokonoism thing is preachy but whatever.... and the meta parts to be uninteresting and kinda distracting.Sirens of Titan was pretty good, but i had a tough time enjoying it because i was comparing it to cat's cradle the whole way through. Both have a similar tone, but it's probably that i found the ice-9, spy stuff, midgets, dictators plot points to be more interesting than 'vengeful' time-travelling 'ghost', mars invading earth, bird aliens, space cave worms, and fate stuff, but i'll admit i appreciate the variation.Also Breakfast for Champions...maybe i'll have to read it (audiobooked it first) but i remember it having a pretty unsatisfying ending.

>>69024I don't recall Breakfast Of Champions having much in the way of plot, so not having much of an ending wasn;t a shock IMO. Vonnegut admits the book is very self-indulgent and it is more for his hardcore fans rather than newbies.

>>69021 me again. Since the last post I read Reflections In A Golden Eye by McCullers and was slightly disappointed. The consensus seems to be that it was her 2nd and therefore "mature" novel and although it seemed more revised than some of her early work it also lacked the feeling of a town-wide scope that she used in books like Clock Without Hands or The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter. Some pros: amazingly prescient of "suburban" malaise--I didn't realize military bases had such suburban housing but the fact that those communities exist all over the US today kind of spooks me. Also the passage that the title comes from (that says "reflections in a golden eye" or whatever) was the closest thing to a DPH trip I've ever seen in a novel. Another gay 'fairy' character appears in this one; I had mixed feelings about him but he was complex enough to be interesting even if he was a caricature.

For school I'm currently rereading The Neon Bible by John Kennedy Toole and The Member Of The Wedding by McCullers and also reading The Genealogy of Morals (not all the same class). If I have any free time I'll hopefully be reading The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone by Tennessee Williams.

The sequel to Fanshen, which I read a couple months ago. It's by an American farmer who went to live and work in a small Chinese village in one of the communist controlled areas during the last year of the Civil War, so the first book consists of his observations about the land reform process and its successes and failures, interviews with locals about how things have changed, descriptions of everyday life, that sort of thing. This one is similar except its based on his return visits after the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. He's obviously sympathetic to Mao, but also doesn't tend to mince words about the various major problems, fuckups and excesses of those periods. It's surprisingly in-depth and pretty fascinating, though a bit limited in scope since it generally focuses on Shanxi province rather than China as a whole. Still, clears up a lot of misconceptions without drifting too far into hagiography. And the narrative structure is a nice change of pace from most of the dry history books I read these days.

i've been reading these 4 this month, i blew through the first 3 and now i'm halfway through lust. it's interesting to read what he wrote for adults though i think that i was expecting a bit more. some of the stories are very enjoyable, though.

>>69114It's a bunch of stories from different sources put together into new collections, so some that were printed in magazines, some from his books. Probably there are some from Tales of the Unexpected, I haven't been paying too much attention to where each story is from and I haven't read his other collections.

Recently read Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero (which I really enjoyed) and am now about three quarters of the way through American Psycho, which I am enjoying decidedly more.

I'm not going to lie, the drawn out passages describing Bateman's cannibalism and necrophilia turn my stomach, but it's honestly one of the most well written and absorbing critiques of American consumer culture I've ever read. Spent around 5 hours straight reading it yesterday and can't wait to finish it when I get home after work.

Anyone doing a Goodreads reading challenge this year? My goal is 150 books, but many say I am cheating because I listen to audiobooks at work. Are audiobooks cheating? Anyways, I'm at book 60 so far. Right now it''s Wolf In White Van by John Darnielle, the lead singer of the band Mountain Goats. Listened to a lot of good stuff this year, trying to go outside my usual wheelhouse.

I've adopted a strategy of reading three books at a given time (fiction, non-fiction, drama/poetry) to keep myself from getting uninterested and falling off. It helps whenever I'm in a depressive episode because I find it difficult to read during them sometimes.

Currently:

>All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren>Jacob, Menahem, & Mimoun by Marcel Benabou>Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

Really enjoying both All the King's Men & JM&M. Have only read the intro to Under Milk Wood, which is actually the script for a radio play by Thomas, and I'm planning to just sit and read through it in one sitting and then see if I can find somewhere online to listen to it performed.

Read books 4 and 5 of the Saxon Stories, the books behind the TV show The Last Kingdom. Uhtred Son Of Uhtred kicks ass.

On to Crime & Punishment. Loving it so far, almost finished actually. Want to read more older books like this, ones that don't suck. This book is like the OG American Psycho or Fight Club, although obviously not as extravagant and more grounded in reality, but summing up the mindset of a man at war with himself and his surroundings.

>>69205I love murakami. The wind up bird chronicles. hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world, wild sheep chase, and dance,dance,dance are all good ones as well. Haven't much cared for the last few he's churned out though. Is this the first of his you have read?

>>69207It was my first Murakami read. I went in blind and thought it would be something way more pretentious and lame than what I got. Instead it blew my damn mind. If I continue with his books, I was thinking of going chronologically.

>>69192Absolutely fucking loved All The King's Men. Best novel I've read in recent memory. JM&M was also quite good, very comfy. I still haven't had a chance to listen to Under Milk Wood, but even reading the script was a lot of fun, and you can tell thay Thomas knew well how to take advantage of the form as a vehicle of language. Do any major writers still write for radio? Seems like something of a lost art. This was also my first exposure to Dylan Thomas.

Since that post I read another group of three:

>A Case of Need by Michael Crichton>Looking Awry by Slavoj Zizek>Love and Other Hungers by Sarah O'dell Underwood

I'm not a huge fan of Crichton, but I was somewhat amused by this one. It is essentially a pre-Roe v. Wade abortion thriller. Not terrible. Looking Awry is supposed to be Zizek's introduction to Lacan using popular culture, but I saw one reviewer describe it instead as an introduction to pop culture using Lacan and I thought that was a very perceptive way of describing it. Love and Other Hungers was a comfy collection of poetry, written by a fellow native of NE Tennessee. Slight. But comfy.

Currently reading:

>A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens>Interrogating the Real by Zizek>the Bacchae by Euripides

>>69208chronologically, I am pretty sure kafka on the shore is one of his later novels. His older one's are the Rat trilogy ( wild sheep chase and dance,dance dance being the better ones imo and at least until recently the only ones translated in to english) and hard boiled wonderland. Norwegian wood was published around then but was pretty boring in my opinion, not really the grounded-surreal vibe of the other books. Then wind up bird chronicles, kafka on the shore etc. His short stories are pretty good as well. 1Q84 and the colorless tzukaru were unimpressive to me, I got the feeling he was just churning them out.

Anyway, Murakami occupies a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did at one time.

>>69214So I was going to read his old stuff but saw he had a brand new story collection out called Men Without Women. I should have taken your advice and skipped his new stuff, these stories were NOTHING like Kafka On The Shore, they were all dull tales of middle aged guys getting divorces. literally every story was the same plot. Here's hoping my next Murakami read will be better.

Some other shit I read lately:A couple collections of Laird Barron tales. This guy is the best short horror writer since Lovecraft. Such poetic prose about mind-bending terrors.Harry Potter and the Methods Of Rationality. A fanfic novel bigger than The Stand.Fevre Dream by George R R Martin, GRRM writing werewolves and vampires instead of dragons and midgets.The Thrawn books from Star Wars universe.Wolf In White Van by John Darnielle (lead singer of The Mountain Goats)The Circle by Dave Eggers.

Shit, I forgot to mention that I'm rereading The Book of the New Sun now. I'm only a few chapters into Shadow of the Torturer, though, so I'll probably put it on hold to read some new stuff, like the two I mentioned above.

>>69210Finished all of these. Dickens was quite good, though I would not rank this novel with his very, very best, it is certainly among his better works. I am actually Sydney Carton. My edition also contained a really fascinating essay by Stephen Koch that deal with the significance of rape as the primordial crime of the novel and the sexual dimensions of revolutionary violence which all fascinated me in light of having read Robin Morgan's book The Demon Lover which examines the sexualized, patriarchal roots of political violence in the form of terrorism.

Interrogating the Real by Zizek was also excellent, and actually got me really tuned up to want to rework a Lacanian/Hegelian reading I made of Krapp's Last Tape several years ago before I even knew who Zizek was, and make it more explicitly Zizekian and submit it to the journal of Zizek studies. That'd be fun.

The Bacchae was good, though my translation was a bit flat, I thought (which makes sense given that it is an academic Cambridge translation), though it did have some interesting notes on staging that illuminated certain things about the text I might not otherwise have considered. Euripides was certainly a little more formally daring than some of his fellow tragedians.

I'm about halfway through Eco and really enjoying it. This is the first of his novels that I've read. The Prince is a reread, but with a new introduction. I haven't started Twelfth Night yet, but I haven't read any Shakespeare since high school, so this will be a treat I'm sure.

Currently reading The Island of Doctor Moreau as a buffer between Lenin's State and Revolution and some other political text I'll doubtless read afterwards.

Only ever read Wells' Short History of the World before, it's interesting to read his fiction because he is a fantastic writer, really descriptive and imaginative. I'll doubtless end up reading The Time Machine soon, especially as I really enjoyed the film.

So I read Bird Box (Josh Malerman) and Apathy and Other Small Victories (Paul Neilan) over the past two days.

Bird Box was pretty creepy, and I loved the idea of something that drives sane people crazy having no effect on people who are already insane. I'm dumb as fuck, though, for not realizing that blind people would be completely unaffected.

Apathy and Other Small Victories... holy shit, I don't know if I've ever laughed at -anything- as hard as I laughed at this book. Stealing saltshakers, a guinea pig in gimp gear... so much stuff that's making me laugh just remembering it. By the end of the first chapter I knew I'd be buying it so I could add it to my rotation of books I reread every year or two. Seriously guys, find this book and start reading it - you'll know within the first few pages whether or not you'll enjoy it, and if you'll enjoy it, you'll love it.

It is perhaps the best science fiction novel I have ever read, and I have read quite a bit.

The first two thirds of the book read kind of like the book The Martian by Andy Weir, but with infinitely more at stake, as well as more detailed in the technical aspects. The final third sets up the most compelling far-future human society I have ever experienced in print or other media.

I can't wait for the movie to come out, and I would be completely heartbroken if Stephenson doesn't revisit this universe in another book.

Narrative history of Delhi during the Sepoy Mutiny. Enjoyable read, though he maybe gets a little bogged down in telling me for the fifth time that everything smelled like citrus and rosewater at the feast where they ate grouse, pheasants, turkeys, spiced finches, whole chickens, roasted peacocks, curried peacocks with chilis, baby quails, partridge legs...

A brief love affair with a white man, I realized 2 years ago thanks to internet campaigning that almost all the books I'd read were written by men and all of them white men. So I started reading mostly women and people who aren't of European descent. It's not that race should matter in making a decisions it's that the fact that I was only recommendations and only being recommended white people meant someone else's prejudices were affecting me. It's not a problem with some genres, so some people don't have to bother making this effort, but the sort of stuff I read seems to have a strong bias towards male and pale, yanno?But yeah FUCK I had to read this book it is INCREDIBLE

>>69300Midnight's Children is another good one from Rushdie, if you're looking for more. It's like a magical realist depiction of Indian independence from the perspective of several generations of a single family

I'm about a hundred pages into the third book in the Gentlemen Bastards series. I really enjoy Lynch's writing and world building, and I'm stoked Republic of Thieves is starting to get into the inner politics of the bondsmagi.

I'm just sad there won't be another book to read as soon as I finish this one. Discovering a great new series only to get caught up and have to wait for the next book is such a bittersweet feeling, looking at you Kingkiller Chronicles.

>>69307I see the author has a new book planned per year for them. I just read book 1 last month and haven't decided whether or not to continue them. Like, all my favorite characters died so I'm not as committed to the series after wholesale slaughter of my fav cast members. They should have pulled a GRRM and killed Locke Lamora instead of killing every cool person he ever met instead.

>>69308It's worth continuing. I was struck by those deaths too, but the series is really about Locke and Jean's relationship and later Sabetha in the third book. Plus, they come back in interludes later so you still see those characters. Their deaths constantly come up and weigh on Locke and Jean. I won't say I was disappointed in him killing off most of the main cast in the first book but their deaths weren't wanton.

I just love the world Lynch has built, and the structure with which he builds it. I love the interludes, which give a little back story here and there but also pertain to the main narrative it interrupts. It's an interesting and deliberate use of foreshadowing I haven't seen before. And I've got a soft spot for Locke cuz he reminds me of myself.

>>69310You may love or hate their heist in the second book then. It's elaborate as hell, gets convoluted with a bunch of different factions fucking with them and when they pull it off, they come away with no money and they're poisoned.

I'm still working my way through book 3, but this series still captivates me like hell.

While on that topic, any audiobook fans here? I work landscaping 40 hours a week and blow through books by the dozens. This reason alone is a big part of why I'll probably listen to Locke Lamora 2, because wtf else am I gonna do all day?

Gonna namedrop a fuckload of book titles that I listened to in the last couple weeks: The Scarlet Letter, Laird Barron's entire bibliography (dude is the second coming of Lovecraft), Stephen King's The Running Man, Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy, Kurt Vonnegut's Timequake, George R R Martin's Dreamsongs (almost every short story he ever wrote, as long as Infinite Jest, another book I just finished but in physical instead of audio). I've listened to other things but obscure things that I doubt anyone hear would recognize or give a shit about.

>>69315I audiobooked the first one so i think i'll give the 2nd a try. Thanks for the headsup.>>69316yup i listen to audiobooks as well. But i'm very picky with the narrator. I try to find books narrated by the authors first. Here's a list of some i enjoyed:David Foster Wallace stuff (Consider the Lobster, Shipping Out, the Big Red Son, some of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men) read by the authorRoadside Picnic (narrated by Robert Forster)The Sun Also Rises (narrated by William Hurt)Kafka On the Shore (don't know who read it)A Good Man Is Hard to Find (read by author)

>>69317I've listened to a small number of fiction podcasts, but no educational ones. I listen to some non-fiction books but only in subjects I have particular interests in. I'm not as picky about quality or the narrator, I've listened to some real crap quality audios on occasion.Also listened to Kafka On The Shore a few months back, curious to read/listen to more from the author.

Hi everyone. I didn't want to intrude in this thread unless I had something to offer, and, well, I do. I put86 books into a .zip file and uploaded them at DepFile. Some of you may have heard that DepFile has an unsavory reputation because people from the darknet use it. I don't know anything about that. I've been using the place for years with no problem. It's doesn't have https capabilities, and that's what I know about it. Normally for things that are under 200 MB I use Zippyshare, but this package is about 530 MB. The titles are in the accompanying pic. I hope that you enjoy; and the link is:

Ugh. Ive never been so frustrated with a book. It was a strong novel, but had some issues that were so major for me that it's hard to overlook them. Notably, the use of a flashforward opening scene to attempt sowing confusing and distrust in the reader. It was just so poorly done, obvious, and idiotic. It ruined almost every scene for me, like, 'should i be worrying about that dumb prologue right now, or is the writer just a shithead troll?' Big shock, Shithead Troll won the bet. Also, it has a major cliffhanger ending, but the act of making it a cliffhanger makes me fairly sure they will never follow through on it in book 3. Final complaint, they dialed down the swearing. BOOOO. Fucking fuckers.

>>69337Yeah, I'd share those criticisms. I actually forgot about the prologue entirely until the scene came up again and it had very little pay off.

I'm just about finished with the 3rd book, and I'd say book 2 is the weakest of the series, but I really enjoyed its setting of Tal Verrar and the Sea of Brass. In terms of the cliffhanger, they resolve it pretty early on in Republic of Thieves. It's like the first gear that gets the plot rolling but it doesn't linger.

I mentioned the interludes in an earlier post and one of the weaker aspects of book 2 is its lack of them. Book 3 is 50-50 interludes and the main story and I really enjoy the way it drives the plot and character development. I will say that I've reached a point in the narrative where a huge bomb is dropped regarding Locke's origin, and it has me wary. I'm interested to see how it progresses, but it's kind of out of left field.

>>69351Yeah, I read Republic Of Thieves last week too and forgot to post about it. Locke's orogins felt like the writer trying to suddenly turn the books into some Wheel Of Time stuff instead of the heist books they always were. Book 4 will be make or break on if I continue the series. I thought 3 had the weakest "heist" plot yet, with close to no stakes for anyone involved. I hated how quickly the end of book 2 was just written off and was only a plot device to force the characters to once again be subservient to some massive asshole (kinda the plot of every book in the trilogy at this point). ALso, didn;t dig Sabitha as a main character, for once I was waiting for the ending where everyone usually dies and was pissed nobody wound up dying this time.

>>69352Yeah, the election stuff is weird. Like, it comes off as a weak excuse to get Locke, Jean, Sabetha and the bondsmagi in the same plot. Honestly, I enjoy the interludes of them in Espara way more than the main plot. I still don't know how I feel about Sabetha. I like her as a foil to Locke, but she's such a bitch sometimes.

>>69353Exactly, the entire book was plot evices driving it rather than anyhting the characters cared about. If the core crew doesn't give two shits about the success or failure of their heist, why the hell would I care about it? The flashbacks were the better part of the book but only because it felt like book 1 again with the whole OG crew back together. I'd have cared more if they were already trying to rig an election for money making reasons, then the bondsmagi showed up and started fucking with them midway through, and the results of it would actually impact the heroes in some fucking way. If it weren't for the reveals on Locke's origins, the book would have been utter filler. And these books are too damn long for filler.

Also, after the recent Rick and Morty with The Falcon, i couldn;t take the return of The Falconer seriously at all with his dorky name.

>>69357I'm like less than 100 pages from finishing book 3, but I agree with you. The election is such a thin plot device. Honestly, he could've put Sabetha in the archon's service through some means, given her the role of Merida (was that her name? She was such a throwaway main character, I can't remember) and book 2 and 3 could be one, with the bondsmagi still fucking with them and still unloading the Locke origin tidbit. Like another said, book 4 is gonna make or break this series.

Yeah that was my post too, my ID just changes all the time. As far as I can tell, there's 3 of us reading Locke Lamora ITT.Also, I thought these books came out fast but I guess I'm wrong, Goodreads says we can expect book 4 in about a year, 9/2018ish. Dag. Sounds like the big War will break out, hopefully it's good. I was hoping it came out this year...

Finished reading The Complete Stories, by Edgar Allen Poe. God-tier writing here, lives up to all the hype. I'm obsessed with Lovecraft and now can see where he learned lots of his tricks from.

Now in the middle of One Hundred Years Of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Really really good. I hear this invented magical realism and I see how tons of books I love were inspired by it, from Haruki Murakami to Niel Gaiman.

I've been reading carl jung's Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle. I can hardly make heads or tails of it. The idea of synchronicity seems to be, in my opinion, quasi-religious in nature. I'd love to speak with someone else that's read this or is familiar with synchronicity itself, if you chose to believe in it that is. Jung seem's to be known for his work is psychology but you hardly hear disccusion on his views on ESP, synchronicity, and the implications of the archetypes (whatever they might be.)

>The Prague Cemetary by Umberto Eco - horrifyingly plausible recreation of the rise of anti-semitic thought in early modern Europe and a work of intensely curated style

>Poetics by Aristotle - reread as working through the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Surprisingly craft oriented book of theory that essentially created the formal discipline of literary theory.

>The Prince by Machiavelli - The invention of political science in under 120 pages. Also fascinating for contemporary analyses of Italian nationalist movements and figures of the period. Immensely perceptive treatment of political realities.

Twelfth Night by Shakespeare - fun gender swap comedy play, though a little more pointed and less humane than some of the Shakespeare I remember. Can't tell if it is a celebration or condemnation of the inevitability of our fallibility in the prusuit of happiness beyond our vanities.

>Incidents at the Shrine by Ben Okri - moving, occasionally funny, usually harrowing collection of short stories dealing with modern Nigeria and Nigerian expats. Explores variously the violences and intimacies of African (and General) life, and their interior effects on the soul that lives them.

>Exisitential Errands by Norman Mailer - Assortment of late 60s and 70s period nonfiction pieces including mostly essays and interviews. Some brilliant writing and original thought deeply marred by a tremendous ego. Sometimes fascinatingly original, sometimes infuriatingly dull. Am interested in checking out his fiction.

>The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by Tolkien - Compelling and forceful original compositions based on Norse myth, poetry, and prose. Instructive and interesting scholarship as a bonus.

>Words of a Rebel by Peter Kropotkin - Energetic and mostly polemical early Anarchist political journalism and theory by one of the most important Anarchists theorists of all time. Come for the cocktails, stay for the molotovs.

>The Tempest by Shakespeare - a much more forgiving comedy than Twelfth Night. Seemed to be on the same side as it's flawed characters, and thus all of us flawed, imperfect beings (well, let's not get into Caliban, poor guy). "This isle is full of noises, sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not."

>The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner - not the earth shaking masterpiece that was Absalom, Absalom!, but a minor classic of its own. Beautiful, lurid, mean, gracious, honest, terribly sad. Exploration of the idiocies, romances, prides, and failures of the South and it's peoples as they struggle to live together in the legacy of primordial sin and fall.

>Discourse by David R. Howarth - Reread, but nonetheless a thorough and readable introduction to discourse theory as a methodology in the social sciences which critiques a number of approaches and offers a compelling view of its utility and scope.

>The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson - Caustic, humane, cynical, optimistic, and imperfect. Energetic and wandering by turns, it's a timely book to have read in trying to understand the legacy of American capitalism in Puerto Rico. Implies a trajectory if you're familiar with Thompson's later work.

>Radiant Action by Matt Hart - To borrow some phrasing from a review, it outlines a compelling ethos of radical compassion. A punk rock elegy for the kindnesses disappearing from our lives that might just give us the tools to reanimate them. Cathartic and musical.

>Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - Compassionate, generous, and very readable. Lacks a bit of the poetry of the film due to it's more rigid structure, though still a virtuoso piece of stylistic experimentation. Deals perhaps more deeply with the themes of domination than the film, and perhaps also (just a little) less hopefully.

>Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard - Challenging piece of cultural critique and theory. Perceptive critique of the ideological vacuity and totality of neoliberalis post industrial Western capitalism and its malleable unrealities. Troubling and informative.

>The Reaver by Richard Lee Byers - Harmless and mostly rote D&D fiction. A bit of a shame to know that the novel line has ended given the energy generated by 5e.

>...Isms: Understanding Art by Stephen Little - Very surface level but useful introduction to movments within the visual arts from the very first stirrings of modernity unto the present day. Light reading, but instructive and useful reference material.

>Hamlet by Shakespeare - A masterpiece of human psychology. Needs to be read again, to work through the subtleties of its language and character.

>Brief Interviews With Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace - Horrendously sad, occasionally funny book that plumbs the depths of emotional and psychic anguish that we inflict upon others and ourselves. Deals extensively with problems of intimacy, authenticity, objectification, domination, and power.

Wampeters, Foma, & Granfalloons by Vonnegut - Readable if somewhat insubstantial collection of essays and other nonfiction prose by Vonnegut. A handful of really powerful pieces couched in lighter work. Vonnegut however always remains fundamentally humane and bitterly funny throughout. He was on the side of people.

>Simpatico by Sam Shepard - Confusing, lonely, sharp little play. Had low expectations based on reviews and was pleasantly surprised. Not as obviously important a text as something like Buried Child, but perceptive and darkly comic in its own way. A fairly ugly vision of American life.

>God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Vonnegut - A frighteningly sober look at the failure of American empathy couched in a goofy morality tale. Bitter, tender, and unflinching.

Surprise the World by Michael Frost - A Christian text intended to illustrate the importance of fostering 'missional habits' I read as part of a small group I was asked to attend. Useful text in some ways even for non-Christians in demonstrating the importance of fostering habits that propel you in loving ways into your community and outside your traditional interpersonal groups in accordance with whatever loving, humanist ethos you're living by.

>What Narcissism Means to Me by Tony Hoagland - An interesting collection of poetry that I found at times searingly intimate and reflective and at others vainly banal and wrongheaded. Will be reading more Hoagland, at any rate.

One-Dimensional Man by Herbet Marcus - Though a little dated in terms of its specific historicity, still a fascinating and gripping critique of the systems of domination omnipresent in techno-rational post-industrial societies (of all ideological flavors). Depressingly clairvoyant, but incredibly useful.

>Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut - A wandering middle slightly softens the blows of an otherwise original and scathing exploration of the supposedly amoral progressive techno-rational sciences and their fundamental inhumanity when not alloyed directly with some humanistic ends and means. Pitch black humor and deep, abiding cynicism about our ability to be better than we have consistently shown ourselves to be.

>Oleanna by David Mamet - Ambiguous and vital exploration of the boundaries of abuse, power, sex, and institutional roles. Nagging suspicion that I may be affording the play more credit than it deserves in terms of its true complexity, but was absolutely gripped while reading it. Hope my suspicions are incorrect and that it really is exactly as ambiguous as I could generously read it.

Am currently reading The Sacred Canopy by Peter Berger, which is about the sociology of religion and the way it functions to legitimate and co-construct cosmically significant guarantees of meaning upon socially constructed and historically contingent social realities.

I've been reading a lot lately, fewer tv shows to distract me lolOf course, between hockey season and finally deciding to start The Wire, that might not continue. I've got half a dozen books on hold at the library, though, and I'll try to keep the momentum going.

>A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore

Pretty funny, but not to the point where I'm tripping over myself to read more of his books.

>The Wheelman, by Duane Swierczynski

Pretty fucking good. I loves me them criminal protagonists, it's got a good plot, and the writing's pretty good. My library doesn't have anything else he's written, so it'll have to wait until I have money to burn again, but I definitely want to read more.

>The Shotgun Rule, by Charlie Huston

God DAMN. Not quite noir, by my definition (which is stuff like The Contortionist's Handbook and the Kiss Me, Judas trilogy), but a fucking great book all-around. I guess it starts off as noir and escalates into more of a thriller. And it fucking escalates, 0-60 in the blink of an eye. I literally finished the book and started figuring out what to read next.

Currently reading The Slow Regard of Silent Things, by Patrick Rothfuss. It's been so damn long since I've read one of his books for the first time that I'd forgotten how much his style makes you want to savor every single word.

>The Sacred Canopy - A compelling piece of sociological theory and worldbhilding. Berger's theory is always humanistic and humane, and elegant in its simplicity.

I am now reading two books, Closing Time by Joseph Heller and The Collected Poems of Yeats. Closing Time is VERY different than Catch-22. Reflexive, disappointed, and moribund where the original was vital, bewildered, and morbid.

Yeats is a towering poet. I generally prefer contempotary, imagistic poetry to the great poets of our past, but Yeats is so sensuous and rich that I still love him.

>>69513Finished it today. It was actually exactly like the movie, which I had seen before reading this today. No major changes, the film was a faithful adaption to the T. It wasn't like The Shining where the book will have tons of stuff the movie didn't include. The one big difference I guess was the book had some scenes from inside the crazy characters head, the one who was ripping all the paper into shreds, and hearing his crazy inner thoughts was a blast (also getting his more fleshed out backstory)

>>69570Its written in a very disjointed semi-stream-of-conscciousness style so it can get confusing, the words hold more visual meaning that actual direct representations of ideas. When you read a paragraph of Naked Lunch it should paint a scene rather than describe wtf is actually going on because its 100% drug fueled delusional nonsense It took me like a month to finish it and I read a book a day sometimes so don't fret it can be kinda tough to slough through

>>69570Yeah like the other guy said, it's just druggie madness, not a real plot. ANy element of plot and narrative flow is because a slightlymore sober Jack kerouac heavily editted the manuscript and made it comprehensible for humans.

>>69593AWWWWW SHITI thought it was coming Friday, not that you'll hear me complain about it.I just picked up Edgedancer today, didn't even know about it until a few days ago. I was hoping Lyft would get more time in the spotlight in Oathbringer, but a novella is fine too.

Finished Edgedancer. Nin having a change of heart was literally the last thing I expected when I started it yesterday. Even when it happened, I was thinking "this has to be a ploy to get Lift to drop her guard." I sort of liked the idea that the Listeners' transformation on the Shattered Plains wasn't the real arrival of the Voidbringers, but I guess that's not the case.

Fighting with The house of leaves. At points its a real struggle. I haven't read anything in like a month and the rustiness gets back so easily. My mind just cant focus and this shit requires concentration. Its interesting tho'

Finally read through The Girl in the Spider’s Web. I enjoyed it though I feel like having it being centered around an autistic savant who happens to be the one witness to the crime is a bit of a hackneyed trope. Gonna read The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye once it’s out on paperback.

>>69754I read that book too and that’s a fantastic read but that plot point in The Girl in the Spider’s Web is more like Mercury Rising except much better written and even then, while it is a key part of the plot, it’s only a small part in a much bigger and more compelling story. I enjoyed reading the Millennium trilogy and I think David Lagercrantz does a good job of continuing the series.

It's roughly 700 pages of near poetry level prose. The basic premise is a Harvard student is writing a paper about LSD manufacturing and is allowed to meet 5 of the 6 major manufacturers capable of planetary scale distribution. Each of the 6 has a special role in addition to manufacturing such as security, government infiltration, lab transport practices (Pickard moved his lab every two years), etc. The discovery of the 6th is left up to "you (the protagonist of the book) and your readers".

finished my Gravity's Rainbow re-read, not gonna necrobump the Pynchon thread I made just to pat myself on the back but it was an exhilarating read, moreso than the first time through. I've read a lot more Pynchon novels since my first time with Gravity's Rainbow, and now I feel I get how the man's mind works better, making it easier to digest some of GR's weirder parts.

>>69859I'm about 1/5 of the way through this 652 page piece of literary art and all I know is this guy knows how to build up to a chapter section that is like a "wave" in an acid trip where all the effects intensify. They have often been so profound and beautiful and within the context of the story so meaningful that I've had to set the book down and walk around for a bit.

10/10 Read so far for anyone interested in psychedelic/trans-humanism.